Last time I checked it, Bill Gates' personal website didn't feature that cool artistic image at the front page. Way to go, Bill!

Speaking of Silicon Valley billionaires and websites, how come can't Bill Gates and Steve Jobs spend a modest (for them, at least) sum of money to get a descent personal website like Paul Allen or *Steve Wozniak?

* yeah, yeah, I know Steve Vozniak isn't a billionaire but his website is great nonetheless

Monsters Inc. is a definite blockbuster and a movie I'm anticipating to watch. You know it's good stuff since Pixar Animation Studios (see JOHN LASSETER) is behind this job. Over at the Internet Movie Database, you can enjoy some screenshots and the trailer of the upcoming movie.

I installed Office XP yesterday, and I may say that -- now -- I have no doubt that this is the best office suit available (no wonder why Mac users are being so impatient about the Mac version of Office XP). Word XP rocks, Outlook XP rocks, Powerpoint XP rocks, and the list goes on... (I can't say anything about Frontpage XP, because I didn't bother to install it.)

Meanwhile, I urge you to read Olivier's excellent "new Marshall plan":

"Terrorism grows out of poverty, fear and ignorance. We won't suppress the former without alleviating the later. Terrorists don't have anything to lose, so pain and death (for them, and inflicted upon others) is not a problem anymore. If we get more people to enjoy some of our prosperity, it will be more difficult for fanatics to recruit people willing to give up their life for their cause."

In another note, I find myself listening to Dido's Hunter a lot these days, not sure why.

Please take a minute and make a donation to the Red Cross: via Amazon.com, via Yahoo!, via PayPal. Even a buck is helpful at such difficult times. All the above services have waived their usual fees, so ALL of the money goes to the Red Cross.

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You can see what exactly happened here. (via kottke.org)

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Do your best to prevent misinformation.

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News Links: Y! News : Hijacked Planes Destroy Twin Towers, Burn Pentagon --/-- Y! News : World Trade Center Collapses After Two Planes Crash into Towers, Pentagon Hit (Full Coverage) --/-- MSNBC.com : Terrorists strike United States --/-- CNN.com : Terror from the Sky (Special Report) --/-- WashingtonPost.com : Bush to Address Nation; Explosions Reported in Afghanistan --/-- BBC.co.uk : US rocked by terror attacks --/-- BBC.co.uk : Who might have done it? --/-- NYTimes.com : Thousands Feared Dead in New York and Washington --/-- Scripting.com : Loads of links related to the tragic event --/-- Rc3.org The U.S. collapse after a series of terrorist atacks

DJ Shadow's site is just awesome. It's 100% flashy, but there's a bunch of reasons to like it:

1. it's well structured. The site's divided into three, self-explained, sections: the present (current news - audio player - merchandise), the past (biography - discography - image & video gallery), the future (shadow's digest - tour information - upcoming album).
2. it's got great tunes (four unreleased demos, to be precise - tune #1 is very nice) to listen to while wandering through the site.
3. it uses a readable font size. Alas!
4. it doesn't take that much too load.

It's one of those sites you just enjoy visiting.

My weblogger twin is... Zannah? Don't get me wrong, but what the hell do I have in common with Zannah?

(Whatever, I must accept the fact that she and I were separated at birth, or something.)

Just found this.... definitely weird thing via Blogdex. Still not sure what the heck it's supposed to be, though...

UPDATE: Ah, it's all explained here (and here).

I will be spending most of my time tomorrow re-installing Linux (SuSE - version 6.3) tomorrow, so if I don't show up, consider me excused.

Why Fiorina is sinking a once-great company, is quite possibly one of the most interesting articles I've read so far in what concerns the HP-Compaq merger.

"Does Carly Fiorina have a clue what she's doing with Hewlett-Packard? Does she understand that this is the jewel of American industry she is toying with as if it is just some resume entry? The answer is: No. [...] She will soon kill the greatest company ever known.

Fiorina has decided to bet Hewlett-Packard on a fading industry that her predecessors would have long since abandoned. [...] It will fail. The market knows it. HPers know it. [...]

Still, mindful of role HP has played in the history of Silicon Valley and the electronics age, Carly Fiorina can perform one last service to the memory of William Hewlett and David Packard. She can name the new company Compaq..."

That last sentence was really something.

A poem:

"Unix users / beware

the 2038 virus / is out there"

Editor's note: It fucking rhymes! (I'm just getting warmed up for the DfC contest.)

(Irrelevant note coming...) Oh, and by the way, I 'm as sure as someone can possibly be that this picture of the upcoming (there is no doubt about that one) MS home entertainment center, is two hundred percent (read 200%) fake.

As much as I appreciate Mr. John. 'Webword' Rhodes for his usability ideas and approaches, I don't agree with his opinion about Google 2.0 (a call for the creation of a Google Browser/Client/OS).

A Google Browser or ... a Google OS: what are you thinking of? Is it so easy to create a browser? Is it worth creating it if there's no way on earth you can gain more than 15%-20% percent of the Web users?

Look at Opera: A brilliant, superfast, ram-saviour browser that is fully standards-compliant and has tons of features. And you can get rid of its advertisements in less than 20 seconds (search for 'Opera 5 Registrations Key' with Google and there you go). And yet, I doubt Opera's share of users reaches 5%.

Even if Google had the needed technology and know-how to create a descent browser, it simply has no motive, no incentive to launch the damn thing.

This isn't good news: HP to Buy Compaq in $25-Billion Deal

"Hewlett-Packard Co. announced on Monday it will buy Compaq Computer Corp. for some $25 billion in stock, in a deal that would create a new computer and technology services powerhouse amid an industry-wide slump."

And this is not good because:

"The combined company, which would retain the HP name, would become the largest personal computer vendor in the world and have revenues of $87.4 billion."

This is just another monopoly coming up. And I'm talking about a monopoly, because the new HP will crash IBM - just wat and see. We've already got Microsoft in software, and now we're gonna get HP in personal computers. Read this article's "Retail giant" section and you'll see what I mean.

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UPDATE: The News.com special coverage on the 'HP + Compaq' merger is excellent (no wonder why I love this site so much...). There you can read about the 15.000 workers that will be laid off as soon as the merger takes place and the reaction of Dell Computer (there you go Sanj!) to the combination of the two companies.

You can also read the e-mail that HP's CEO, Carly Fiorina (yes, she's a woman whose place at the company was in danger, according to speculations), sent to all of its employees today. My favorite part from the e-mail:

"For the first time in a very long time, IBM will have a competitor that's strong enough, bold enough, and talented enough to take them head-on in the enterprise space. [...] Our competitors are going to use every chance they can to discredit it. They'll say we'll lose focus, they'll say we won't be able to execute, they'll say we won't be able to make the tough decisions fast enough. I believe we will prove them wrong."

A woman with balls, I'm telling you.

But what if the deal is blocked? "The European Commission is already preparing to investigate it, explaining it must approve any merger where combined sales are worth more than $4.5 billion", as SiliconValley.com reports.